NASA plans to launch the first of the space agency’s new Orion spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket (seen here) on Exploration Flight Test 1, currently scheduled to take place in September of next year. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / Zero G News

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that is poised to be used to launch the second mission under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract (CRS-2) is readied for its March liftoff date. Photo Credit: Alan Walters / awaltersphoto.com

45th Space Wing’s Commander: ‘Yes, We Are Still Launching Rockets!’

By Jason Rhian

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — “So, what do you do now that they aren’t launching rockets anymore?” This cringe-inducing phrase has become a recurring statement that myself and my partner in covering the space program, Alan Walters, have had to endure a number of times. Alan, ever the wise man, rarely responds, shaking his head and returning to whatever he was doing before the offending comment derailed his day—leaving me to explain that space flight is, in fact, alive and well. This fact was the driving force behind a media event conducted by the 45th Space Wing’s Brigadier General Anthony Cotton.

Cotton and representatives from Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), as well as United Launch Alliance (ULA), toured several members of the media around Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s major facilities, including the Morrell Operations Center (MOC), Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), and ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility, or “VIF.”